Saturday, July 18, 2009

FOREX - the foreign exchange market or currency market or Forex is the market where one currency is traded for another. It is one of the largest markets in the world.Some of the participants in this market are simply seeking to exchange a foreign currency for their own, like multinational corporations which must pay wages and other expenses in different nations than they sell products in. However, a large part of the market is made up of currency traders, who speculate on movements in exchange rates, much like others would speculate on movements of stock prices. Currency traders try to take advantage of even small fluctuations in exchange rates.In the foreign exchange market there is little or no 'inside information'. Exchange rate fluctuations are usually caused by actual monetary flows as well as anticipations on global macroeconomic conditions. Significant news is released publicly so, at least in theory, everyone in the world receives the same news at the same time.Currencies are traded against one another. Each pair of currencies thus constitutes an individual product and is traditionally noted XXX/YYY, where YYY is the ISO 4217 international three-letter code of the currency into which the price of one unit of XXX currency is expressed. For instance, EUR/USD is the price of the euro expressed in US dollars, as in 1 euro = 1.2045 dollar.Unlike stocks and futures exchange, foreign exchange is indeed an interbank, over-the-counter (OTC) market which means there is no single universal exchange for specific currency pair. The foreign exchange market operates 24 hours per day throughout the week between individuals with forex brokers, brokers with banks, and banks with banks. If the European session is ended the Asian session or US session will start, so all world currencies can be continually in trade. Traders can react to news when it breaks, rather than waiting for the market to open, as is the case with most other markets.Average daily international foreign exchange trading volume was $1.9 trillion in April 2004 according to the BIS study.Like any market there is a bid/offer spread (difference between buying price and selling price). On major currency crosses, the difference between the price at which a market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") to a wholesale customer and the price at which the same market-maker will buy ("bid") from the same wholesale customer is minimal, usually only 1 or 2 pips. In the EUR/USD price of 1.4238 a pip would be the '8' at the end. So the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.4238/1.4239.This, of course, does not apply to retail customers. Most individual currency speculators will trade using a broker which will typically have a spread marked up to say 3-20 pips (so in our example 1.4237/1.4239 or 1.423/1.425). The broker will give their clients often huge amounts of margin, thereby facilitating clients spending more money on the bid/ask spread. The brokers are not regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (since they do not sell securities), so they are not bound by the same margin limits as stock brokerages. They do not typically charge margin interest, however since currency trades must be settled in 2 days, they will "resettle" open positions (again collecting the bid/ask spread).Individual currency speculators can work during the day and trade in the evenings, taking advantage of the market's 24 hours long trading day.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

They might dominate the desktop OS market, but they are far behind in online search and advertising. Here is a screenshot from one of the adcenter pages giving really old statistics as obviously in the new one they are trumped by Google

Monday, March 9, 2009

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

If you want to create a dynamic e-mail campaign, you have to offer your clients more than a simple announcement.

If you want customers to buy from you, you are far better off offering “special deals” or a “special offer” than simply offering an announcement.

Why?An announcement says, “Hey, I have a new product!

Wow, that’s terrific!

But what’s in it for the customer?

You have to think about what your customer’s needs are and how you are filling them with every contact you make.

An announcement doesn’t take these needs into consideration, and that’s why far too often Announcements fail to produce results.

An announcement also lacks a call to action or an incentive for customers to contact you.

It doesn’t make sense to contact someone unless you are going to offer him or her an incentive to buy your product.

Keep this in mind when creating your next e-mail campaign.

Types of PromotionsSo now you know you have to offer incentives.

Now, what kind of incentive do you offer in your e-mail campaign?

There are many different incentives to offer. Most people rely on the special discount offer.

You don’t always have to offer a discount however, to get people to buy from you. You can for example, offer a new product to your customers. Say for example, you offer them a free publication, like a subscription to your newsletter if they buy your product now. Or,you can offer them 20% off your latest publication when they order.

You can also offer special deals by recognizing some special event in your personal life. Most customers appreciate e-mails that include some personal information about you. For example, let’s say you have an upcoming birthday or anniversary to celebrate. In your e-mail,mention this.

Say, “Because it’s my birthday today I’m offering you a special discount.” This will help your e-mails appear more personal in nature.

You have to share personal information if you want to build trust with your clients. Let them know something about you.

Say for example you are sharing your 10th anniversary with your partner. Let your customer’s know you are offering a one-time deal because of this.

Another promotion you can offer your clients is the “special sale.”In this special bonus offer, e-mail your clients a day or two after you send out anannouncement.Then let them know you forgot to tell them something in the previous “announcement”, so if they order now, they can take advantage of your mistake.

Then offer them something. Then after a couple of days send them a last minute reminder. You can phrase it similar to, “We almost sold out,and we only have a few hours left, so act now so you don’t miss out. Remember, you’ll be reaping A, B, C benefits.”

Special offers are great during holidays, like Christmas, Halloween or even Valentines Day. Speaking of Valentines Day, remember your offers don’t have to be discounts. They can be something unusual, crazy or fun. Like on Valentines Day, offer your clients a rose or chocolate for ordering that day.

Your goal should be to keep things exciting and fun. Keep all your promotions on an event.

Another way to produce more feedback from youre-mails is to send customers FAQ e-mails. Let’s say for example, you send an e-mail that creates some questions you’d like to respond to.

You can send an FAQ offer or follow up e-mail that answers all their questions and presents a new offer or special deal for your customers.

How Often You Should E-mail Clients?How often should you e-mail your clients? If acustomer consistently buys your products andservices, you should send frequent e-mails.

If however, you are sending a special promotional offer to someone that has neverordered from you, don’t waste too much time on it.

These are just a few things you can do to spice up your e-mail campaign. The bottom line is this… whenever you send an e-mail, you have to create much more than a simple announcement.

An announcement isn’t going to call people to action. You have to carefully craft your e-mails, to encourage your customers to act.You want to offer your customers some incentive so they act on your e-mail immediately.

And one last point... Don’t reveal your price in the e-mail.Your job is to entice, compel and motivate your customers to buy.

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